How Would You Survive This Storm?

[vonreed]

In this day and age with all the roads and such around. Just walk out to the nearest farm road and follow the road out and find a house or someone driving by. Within a couple hours the couple could get a ride to their vehicle and be safe. It'd be a lot better than camping in this weather, unless they were completely prepared for this weather with all the gear they need. Just walk out. It's simple and easy.

[hank franklin]

Al, if it was me, I'd go for Akers and really shouldn't have much trouble making it. My large dry bag doubles as a backpack so I would take my critical gear with me. It would be a rough go but having a very clear idea where Akers is I should have no problem.

However for our hypothetical Germans it might be a different story. You know how distances can deceive on the river. Unless they were very sure of their location and how to get back to Akers, I think staying put is probably the least risk. This assumes they have good gear.

For me, I have a nice 0F sleeping bag that has carried me through lows in the teens without problem. But -10F? This is why this is a fun discussion for me. My 0F bag would be "OK" but I doubt it would perform really well in such conditions. To truly ward off danger I would have to have fire. To feed a fire for some 48 hours in snow covered woods would be a challenge.

Canoeing in yesterday's conditions was doable but also perilous. I think staying put beats canoeing in those conditions.

I guess if our Germans survived night one without freezing their butts off they could do another day / night. However if they woke chilled and in danger then they better try walking out.

[Gavin]

We would have been fine if we decided to stay yesterday but most would be better off getting out.

[raise the motor]

"but they are experienced mountaineers and had planned this trip for a while"

Proper planning for a winter trip would include provisions for difficulty. The risk of overturning and getting wet is very small for experienced boaters. They will have dry clothes for changing, and should make preparations for a quick fire start just in case (kindling, starter etc, in waterproof container).

I would continue down to Pultute and try the roads. If they cannot drive out and cannot get into a buliding they should continue down to Pultite Spring to the vertical log house. The spring is enclosed by hills and I believe the house has a fireplace.

Depending on food supply they could wait out the weather or continue down to Round Spring and the highway.

This reminds me of an experience on the Current during a driving rainstorm at Pultite forty years ago in early October (early on a nine day trip). With all of our gear soaked (including a canvas tent put up wet) we floated down to the two caves below Pultite. We built a fire along the bluff and enjoyed a dinner of spaghetti with piineapple upside down cake. We enjoyed a dry eveniing in the cave and dried out all our gear. Very pleasant night except for the cave crickets staring down from the ceiling. That evening was one of our most memorable on the Current River.

Joe

[Bill Anderson]

If it was me?....Hopefully, I would wake up at home in my warm bed and realize it had all been just a horrible nightmare. If for real, I would paddle the 2 miles.

[Al Agnew]

Keep in mind that Hank's hypothetical was that they are a couple miles downstream from Akers, which would put them something like 7 or 8 miles above Pulltite.

Vonreed, you might reconsider given that area. If they hiked out to the highway on the south side of Akers, they'd have at least 10 miles of nothing but national forest and conservation lands before they reached an inhabited house. If on the north side of Akers and hiking north, about 4-5 miles. From Pulltite, maybe 5-6 miles to get to a house. One farm road somewhere close to where they would have stopped for the night, but hard to find from the river and not leading to any houses for at least 6 miles. That's a pretty wild piece of country, and a maze of steep hollows, so unless they had good maps and knew how to use them, it wouldn't be easy to find a farm road or know which way to go after you hit a road.

[Terrierman]

We would have been fine if we decided to stay yesterday but most would be better off getting out.

So where were you guys?

Nice photos.

[Mitch f]

We would have been fine if we decided to stay yesterday but most would be better off getting out.

I showed these pictures to my wife and she said, "Who are those guys?, they are crazy!"

I told her, "No, they are not crazy...they are fisherman!

[Gavin]

We were on the Current between Baptist & Parker Wednesday through Sunday.

[moguy1973]

We were on the Current between Baptist & Parker Wednesday through Sunday.

You sirs, have large balls...But that actually looks like a good time to me...I remember the hopes of snow during our winter camp-outs with the Boy Scouts so we could see if we could survive for a weekend in sub freezing temperatures in a tent.